Sutra and Tantra: The Profound and Miraculous

WISDOM ACADEMY

Sutra and Tantra: The Profound and Miraculous

ROBERT A. F. THURMAN

Lesson 7: Entering the Creation Stage

Reading: Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp of the Five Stages

(The American Institute of Buddhist Studies, 2010) Chapter 4: Body Isolation, pages 179–220

Brilliant Illumination of the

Lamp of the Five Stages

(Rim lnga rab tu gsal ba’i sgron me)

Practical Instruction in the King of Tantras, The Glorious Esoteric Community

by Tsong Khapa Losang Drakpa

INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION

by Robert A.F. Thurman Edited by Thomas F. Yarnall

Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences series Tengyur Translation Initiative

Jey Yabsey Sungbum Collection

Published by The American Institute of Buddhist Studies

Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies Tibet House US

New York 2010

Not for distribution-For students of Wisdom Academy

179

CHAPTER IV Body Isolation

[83b.6–107b.1]

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´d´ – The import of the individual divisions (of the per-fection stage)]

The fourth has two parts: [i´] How to learn the samadhis of the three isolations; and [ii´] How to learn the samadhis of the two realities.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´dí´ – How to learn the samadhis of the three isolations]

The first has three parts: [A´´] How to learn the body isolation body vajra samadhi; [B´´] How to learn the speech isolation [84a] speech vajra samadhi; and [C´´] How to learn the mind isolation mind vajra samadhi.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´ – How to learn the body isolation body vajra samadhi]

The first has six parts: [1´´] Analysis of which of two stages has body isolation; [2´´] Sequence of creation stage and distinctive body iso-lation; [3´´] Identification of body isolation; [4´´] Typology of body iso-lations; [5´´] How it serves as retraction and contemplation branches [of the six branches]; and [6´´] How to put the body isolation into practice.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´1´´ – Analysis of which of two stages has body isolation]

The first has three parts: [a´´] Setting forth individual interpreta-tions; [b´´] Analysis of their correctness and incorrectness; and [c´´] Set-ting forth our own interpretation.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´1´á´´ – Setting forth individual interpretations]

There are disagreements about where to place body isolation on the two stages. While many such as Abhaya, Muniśhrī, Lakṣhmī, and Bhavya-kīrti explain body isolation as [belonging to the] creation stage, both men-tors Tsunmojen and Abhijña claim it to be [part of the] perfection stage,


180 · Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp

and Master Gö reports in his [Great] Voidness Session that Kṛṣhṇa Samayavajra believes the body isolations of the hundred clans, the five clans, and the three clans to be creation stage and the body isolation of one clan to be perfection stage. Some of the Marpa tradition scholars say that Nāropa considered [body isolation] to be creation stage; but this is not true, since the Concise Five Stages Elucidation explains those two [creation stage and body isolation] separately.

As for how such disagreements arose: [First of all,] based on the Integrated Practices statements that

one remains in the beginner’s samadhi when learning the yogas of conceptuality and single-mindedness and one learns body isolation after having already so remained…

and that

beginning from the creation stage up to the culmination [84b] of body isolation…

wherein the two are treated as separate, [body isolation] is posited as [in-cluded in the] perfection stage. One is considered a “beginner” here in this system from beginning the creation stage meditation until complet-ing it; as Five Stages says:

By the yoga of the beginner, one will attain the eighth stage

and the Integrated Practices says:

In this Vajra Vehicle one trains in the creation stage and attains the eighth stage.

Then again, on the strength of the Integrated Practices statements:

As for the just explained aggregates, elements, and media, one isolates the body; one sets a deity there, common to all, since it is a coarse yoga…

and just after that in the text:

…speech isolation is not creation stage, because it is extremely subtle…


Chapter IV—Body Isolation · 181

—[here,] “common to all” indicates [body isolation] to be common to both stages; depending on which it is interpreted as having parts belong-ing to each stage. Those who posit it as creation stage seem to think its way of meditating the aggregates as deities has the same import as the pure meditation on the individual deities of the creation stage.

If one wonders, “well, those who advocate body isolation as creation stage, in which context of that [stage] do they claim that body isolation is being taught?”

Abhaya accepts the mere visualization of the body of the creation-stage-generated vajradhara as the body isolation, stated in the context of creation stage, thus accepting it as the chief of visualizations. Though others do not explain clearly, when other visualized deities are set in the body, they must be imagined as indivisible from the aggregates and so forth [85a], so it seems that they interpret those [practices] as body isola-tion. As they explain them as generated by mere visualization, it seems they do not claim the body mandala created from seed [syllables] as body isolation. Muniśhrī is not clear about the way in which body isolation is indicated, except for the statement that “the ‘creation stage’ mentioned in the Condensed [Sādhana] indicates the body isolation.”

The latter two paṇḍits accept body isolation as creation stage be-cause they explain that one practices it after already learning the three samadhis of the Condensed [Sādhana], but they do not accept it as the [whole] creation stage explained in the Condensed [Sādhana] itself. Most Tibetan scholars of the Gö tradition assert body isolation to belong to the perfection stage. Lan interprets the coarse body isolation which does not discriminate finely the five [buddhas] in the five aggregates and so forth as observation, and interprets the body isolation which finely discrimi-nates from the hundred clans to the one clan as examination, holding the former to be a body isolation in common with the creation stage, since the creation stage [texts] also explain such meditation in the context of “extreme yoga,” and holding the latter to be the perfection stage’s dis-tinctive body isolation.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´1´´b´´ – Analysis of their correctness and incor-rectness]

Which should we accept of those different interpretations?



If you accept the whole of body isolation as the creation stage ex-plained in the Condensed [Sādhana], you cannot avoid the contradiction with the Integrated Practices statement that one must train in body isola-tion after already having learned the beginner’s samadhi. It is very incor-rect to not include body isolation within the three samadhis mentioned in the Condensed [Sādhana] and to locate it on a different creation stage: because [85b] the three samadhis of the Condensed [Sādhana] indicate all the creation stages needed as preliminaries of the perfection stage, except for some creation stages [implemented] on the occasions of conducting ritual activities; because you cannot posit that “this is the way of learning the arisal of deity forms of the previously unexperienced body isolation creation stage, after completing both subtle and coarse creation stages of the Condensed [Sādhana]”; and because there do not appear [in those creation stages] any ways of meditating the body isolation other than meditating the forms of deity bodies.

It is incorrect to posit the whole of body isolation as perfection stage: because it is stated that “body isolation is common to all”; because speech isolation is specially picked out and stated “not to be in the province of creation stage [practice]”; and because you can understand [it is so] from the statement that coarse and subtle are the means of achieving the com-mon and the distinctive. Therefore, as “establishing the deities” refers to the establishing of deities as the aggregates and so forth, which is common to both stages, you cannot explain that the body isolation is never said to be common [to both stages], and you should divide body isolation into two body isolations belonging to the two stages.

Such being the case, you should not interpret this according to the view of Damtsig Dorjey, since the Integrated Practices states that all body isolations, from the hundred-clan body isolation to the three-clan body isolation, are included in the one-clan body isolation, and it is improper for that included to be of the creation stage and that which includes to be of the perfection stage.

As this meditation of aggregates and so on as deities of body isola-tion is a meditation of the arisal of the deity form, and, since it is taught that [86a] you meditate this after having found extreme stability of the vivid vision of the complete habitat and inhabitant mandalas within a mere mustard seed, you could not gain the experience of this without having already experienced the preceding, it would be incorrect to explain in some other way this stage of the path, [which must be] learned after



having learned that [preceding stage]. Though there is no clear explanation in the context of the first stage concerning this division of each aggregate and so on into five, when you complete the coarse and subtle creation stages, you aim your mind at whatever arises and you can immediately generate stable vivid vision of the arisal of the deity, and you cannot say you cannot generate the division into fields; therefore, Lan does not seem to be correct in his way of differentiating the body isolations of the two stages.

Some scholars say that while the creation stage is the new creation [of a deity], the body isolation meditation of aggregates and so on as deities is the method of deity meditation of the perfection stage, which sees the deities as if primordially established. This seems to be an account based on failing to differentiate clearly between the two procedures of mantra body and wisdom body, [both used] on both stages. Just as, on the occa-sion of the perfection stage, drops and syllables and so on are indeed visualized in mind without existing as they are visualized, since they can create the nonartificial perfection stage without having to develop into other homogeneous visualizations, they are included in the perfection stage [in spite of involving conceptualization]. So you cannot achieve such [a nonartificial perfection stage] just by thinking “aggregates and so on are deities primordially,” and such a method of deity meditation [as the perfection stage body isolation] seems greater than the creation stage with its method of mental imagination and artifice; so you cannot differ-entiate the two stages just by [equating them with] those two [86b] ways of viewing deities.

Similarly, even though the objectification of the mind which realizes voidness can be taken as the arisal of a deity, it cannot thereby be distin-guished from the creation stage; because that occurs even on the occasion of the creation stage; and because, while it is stated that one should purify [reality] in voidness by the [mantras] “śhūnyatā…,” and so on, before creating a deity, it is improper to interpret its meaning as merely the retraction from perception without any proper understanding of the view of voidness.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´1´ć´´ – Setting forth our own interpretation]

Well, then what is the way to differentiate body isolations in terms of the two stages?



In regard to this body isolation which meditates aggregates and so on as deities, there are two ways of meditating it; one where the objec-tivity aspect [involved] in the realization of voidness arises as a deity, and one where it does not. When it does arise [as a deity], it has two varieties; one where it is a distinctive bliss that is realizing voidness, and one where it is not. And when it is the distinctive bliss that is realizing voidness, there are again two kinds; one where it is the bliss arisen from the rasanā and lalanā wind-energies penetrating and dissolving into the dhūti channel, and one where it is not [the bliss] thus arisen.

Of those, on the creation stage there are body isolations where void-ness is realized in the second ways of the first two alternatives—voidness being realized without being realized by that bliss of melting, and where the aggregates and so forth are meditated as deities through the second ways of the last two alternatives. The body isolation that meditates the aggregates and so forth as deities through the first ways of the latter two alternatives is posited as being the perfection stage itself.65 The creation stage body isolation wherein aggregates and so on are meditated as deities is said to consist of the occasions of the visualization of one’s own body mandala and the mandala retraction, and of the viewing of all objective appearances as Vajradhara; and this is indicated by the statement about how the creation stage employs the pure art and wisdom which views the five sense spheres as male and female deities. Therefore, [87a] learning such a body isolation occurs on the same occasion as learning the creation stage. As for the statement that, “after having already learned the begin-ner’s samadhi, one learns the body isolation,” it refers to the perfection stage body isolation.

65 This rather brilliant analysis deserves a schema:

Body isolation which meditates aggregates as deities a) Seeing voidness as a deity

i) Seeing the void-deity through bliss x) Central channel bliss y) Non-central channel bliss

ii) Seeing the void-deity without involving bliss b) Not seeing voidness as a deity

Creation stage body isolation (bold) = b, a-ii, a-i-y. Perfection stage body isolation (italic) = a, a-i, a-i-x. This way of differentiating shows distinctiveness while allowing overlap.



Well then, if you wonder, “where is it taught that the body isolation meditates the aggregates and so on as deities from the perspective of great bliss?”

It is taught by the Integrated Practices’ quote, in the context of meditating the five clan body isolation, from the Equal to Space Tantra:

All this living world has the nature of five buddhas, Appearing like actors or like lovely paintings; Wherein “great bliss” itself alone, Alone performs through many moods.

Here just as a single actor performs using different masks and costumes and a single color such as blue arises in many forms of color, so the single great bliss itself is stated to perform in many kinds of aesthetic mood. This is not to be understood as referring to such a performance by Buddha Vajradhara alone, but is used in terms of all great blisses of path and frui-tion times.

Thus in the occasion of body isolation, great bliss alone is medi-tated as arising in the manifold play of the five clans and so forth, and that is not in terms of visualizing the bliss of other beings without having that bliss in one’s own continuum, but is so meditated having generated that bliss in one’s own spiritual continuum. Therefore, in that context, the Integrated Practices states [quoting the Magic Supreme Bliss Tantra]:

The yoga will not arise From a cast statue and so forth, But striving in the spirit of enlightenment, [87b] The yogī/nī will become a deity. Oneself the nature of all buddhas! Oneself the nature of all heroes! Thus one joins the divine, And thereby should realizes one’s nature.

Thus one should not just visualize the form of an external deity but should establish oneself in unity with the deity through striving in the spirit of enlightenment; the “spirit of enlightenment” quoted [here] in the Magic Supreme Bliss [Tantra] is the bliss-void-indivisible spirit of enlighten-ment.



The Hevajra Tantra also states:

Definitely the purity of all things is called “suchness”; Then distinguishing each one, one should call them deities.

And also:

Oneself self-aware is purity, not freed by another purity, Objective things being pure, self-knowing, bliss supreme.

Thus, three purities are stated: a general purity called “suchness purity,” when you determine all outer and inner things to be void of intrinsic reality status; a purity of individual deities from meditating the matter aggregate and so on as deities; and a purity of natural awareness, the supreme bliss of each yogī/nī’s natural awareness. The middle of these is said by the same text:

In the realm of the creation stage, This should purify the aggregates.

—that the purity of individual deities, lacking the great bliss deity medi-tation, is in the creation stage. Therefore, great bliss is the purity of the perfection process, and the suchness purity is common to both stages.

Therefore, if you do not know the above explained way of deity meditation of perfection stage body isolation, since in this context you will lack the way of deity meditation that creates the wisdom body [88a], though you posit it as perfection stage, it will show no difference from the way of creating the mantra body deity, and you have not understood the vital point of this.

Well then, one wonders, if this kind of great bliss is not posited on the creation stage, and its art of creation does not appear until the creation stage is perfected and body isolation arrived at, and moreover if even in the context of body isolation the way of producing this does not appear, how does great bliss emerge in this context?

By the reason that this seems to be one of the greatly difficult points, very hard to sort out, I will explain it in the context of the sequence [of the stages].



[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´2´´ – Sequence of creation stage and distinctive body isolation]

How do you ascertain the sequence of the creation stage and the perfection stage body isolation?

Generally, as for the complete meditation of the coarse and subtle creation stages, it is the means of developing the root of virtue that pro-duces all the perfection stages, so it also serves as the means of developing the arisal of the perfection stage body isolation. In particular, the medita-tion of the subtle [symbolic] implement or drop within the jewel is the method of collecting the rasanā and lalanā wind-energies into the dhūti channel. Depending on that, when you develop the above-explained great bliss, it becomes the meditation of the actual body isolation, and that is how it is connected with the subtle creation stage.

One wonders here, “from what does one know that the meditation of the subtle at the lower door becomes the art of collecting the two wind-energies into the dhūti channel?”

Although life-energy control is taught in both the Action and Per-formance Tantras, it has previously been explained how these cannot col-lect the two wind-energies into the dhūti channel. As for the meditation of life-energy control taught in the Unexcelled [Yoga Tantras], “life-energy” means the rasanā and lalanā wind-energies and “control” means their insertion into the dhūti channel, having blocked their movement in the rasanā and lalanā [channels] [88b]. Much has been said about this in the Time Machine literature. Though the Illumination of the Lamp does not so explain the meaning of “life-energy” and “control,” it is similar [there] since the meditation of life-energy control accomplishes that very task. Therefore, the Personal Instruction [of Mañjuśhrī], commenting on the meaning of the Further Tantra statement that the meditation of the subtle at the secret nose tip is life-energy control, states:

In the way of the strong-hearted, The drop falls from the heart lotus, And abides in the center Of one’s vajra jewel; Supreme form of five elements, Reality of five wisdoms, Visualized as the subtle sign of one’s divine self, Ablaze with the five light rays.



That is stated more concisely as “stopping the breath is the branch of voidness,” saying that this is the branch of creating the void by stop-ping the expanding and contracting of the breath exhaling and inhaling from the nostrils, showing that the life-energy control branch and the breath-stopping branch are the same in meaning. Tathāgatavajra also states [in his Art of Achievement (Lūyipa’s Sādhana) Commentary Auto-commentary]:

Having caused the life-energy wind with its nature of the five elements to move downward, by the way of enfold-ing it into a drop of spirit of enlightenment the mere size of a mustard seed, having it descend to the nose tip of the vajra, you should visualize with the previously explained process of retraction and the five branched contempla-tion. This is the drop yoga; for the sake of reversing the outward flow of life-energy [winds], because of that very reason, the Esoteric Community Further Tantra called this “life-energy control.” And this again is merely an illustration; the yoga of subtle āli and kāli [letters] at the navel, or the contemplation of the yoga of drops and so on at the heart and so on [89a], whatever works toward blocking the emission of life-energy is called “life-energy control.” Especially, on the strength of such contemplation as this, the control of the life-energy winds moves intensely into the central channel, having reversed their flow in the rasanā and lalanā channels; and this again is called “life-energy control.”

Thus the Further Tantra states that “life-energy control” is the meditation on the subtle [drop] of the lower door, as it blocks the inhala-tion and exhalation flowing in the nostril from the rasanā and lalanā and injects them into the central channel. And that is merely a partial exam-ple. For this extremely clear explanation that life-energy control is what accomplishes that function, by meditating the visualization of drops and letters and so on at the navel and heart and so on, must be understood as applying to all statements about meditating the perfection stages which place letters and so on in whatever channel wheels there are. As for the statement about meditating [the yoga branches of] retraction and contem-



plation, as those two are accepted as creation stages, it means they should be meditated on by one who possesses [expertise in the] creation stage.

Some of the Indian treatises on the six yoga branches of the Jñāna-pāda tradition also explain in this same way. The Sheaf of Instructions says there is an eight petalled channel wheel inside the jewel, and the Initiation Summary mentions “the lotus of the jewel” intending that. Thus, meditating the subtle [drop] therein, one can withdraw the wind-energies into the dhūti channel. The [Vajra] Rosary statement “by seeing the place within the jewel” resembles the statement about changing [this place] into the lotus in a woman; one must understand [the statement in this context] as referring to that support, [the channel wheel in the jewel, or in the lotus].66

In the Noble system, it is said that first you become stable by meditating the subtle in the jewel [89b] and [then] you can meditate the mandala within the expansion into the lotus of the mother. Thus, except for those of the type who can easily collect the wind-energies, even if you stably meditate the mandala of the subtle of the creation stage it is hard for the two wind-energies to dissolve into the dhūti channel, so usually when you enter the body isolation having stabilized the subtle mandala, and you meditate the subtle drop or implement in the jewel, only after having injected the two wind-energies into the dhūti channel should you meditate the actuality of the body isolation, the union of bliss-void and so on.

As for the Further Tantra explanation of life-energy control which meditates the drop in the heart center and the lower door, its meaning explained by the Personal Instruction as a branch of stopping the breath is clearly elucidated by the two Indian treatises, especially explaining that all meditations of letters and drops in the places of the channel wheels serve as methods for compressing the wind-energies into the dhūti channel. This is a marvelously eloquent detailed explanation of life-energy control.

If you do not understand this, as your [understanding of] life-energy control will be too narrow, you will not understand the need to employ 66 I am uncertain about this; it refers to the need to be in a controlled sexual union posture with a consort to bring the drop into this position, and both partners in the union must be able to focus in this way, in the jewel for a male and in the lotus for a female.



the life-energy control of the six branches in many of the Unexcelled [Yoga] perfection stages. And if you do not understand the vital point of meditating by having visualized channel wheels and having set letters and so on in them, you will not understand the vital points of the medi-tations of the two Community systems and Ghaṇṭapa’s [Supreme Bliss] Five Stages and so on, where drops and letters are set in those places without clearly visualizing the channel wheels. Thus it seems that the great certainty about the ultimate points of the instruction will not arise. But if you understand this pattern, it seems that it can develop the won-drous certainty about the vital key points of the private instructions about all of these [practices] [90a].

If you still do not know properly the way of meditating the perfec-tion stage body isolation of this system, the problems lies in failing to know the way in which subtle drop meditation serves as the life-energy control which collects the two wind-energies and the way in which that develops the great bliss. Relying on the wisdom consort, having completed the subtle and coarse creation stage, you can bring your enlightenment spirit down from your crown to the tip of your secret place. You can stop it there with the PHAṬ letter, with extremely stable visualization, and relying on that you can generate the four joys. But that cannot be posited as the perfection stage great bliss, since it does not arise from the dissolv-ing of the two wind-energies into the dhūti channel. Therefore, even the meditation on the aggregates and so on as deities from the perspective of uniting voidness and such a bliss [of four joys derived from visualization of the wisdom consort without dissolving the wind-energies] is not accepted as perfection stage body isolation.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´3´´ – Identification of body isolation]

The third has two parts: [a´´] Others’ interpretations; and [b´´] My interpretation.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´3´á´´ – Others’ interpretations]

Many Tibetan mentors consider there to be four body isolations, and [consider that the quote] from the Integrated Practices, from:

…this acquired body abides like a heap, piled up as a mass of things, such as the measure of flesh…



up to:

…the eyes and limbs and so forth…

explains that the verbal meaning of body is “pile,” a mass of thirty-six impure substances, and refers to the “material body isolation, which is an object also common to the disciples, since it is an “isolation” from the fundamentalists’ and so on reifications of the body as pure and happy.

[They also consider that the Integrated Practices statement:]

…the five aggregates, four elements, six media, five objects, and five wisdoms, are called a ‘heap,’ just like calling many grains such as rice and barley and so on a ‘heap,’ and so the body [90b] is said to be a heap of a mass of limbs and members…

refers to the “natural body isolation,” which is an object also common to the followers of the Transcendence [Vehicle], since it is “isolated” from the notion of the singular self, since it is composed of a multiplicity of aggregates, elements, and media and so on.

[They also consider that the Integrated Practices statement:]

…[the body-mind] is called an ‘accumulation,’ since, due to the meeting of [minds and] elements, it forms a continuum of intellligence, views, mentality, misknowl-edge, instinct, craving, and addiction, and this heap or mass of consciousnesses cannot be perceived [ulti-mately], since it is not located [spatially]…

refers to the “consciousness body isolation,” since it is isolated from subject and object [dichotomy], consciousness not being perceived; which [isolation] is an object common also to the Idealists.

[And finally, they also consider that the Integrated Practices state-ment:]

…since aggregates, elements, and media have been pre-sent from the beginningless due to the pride of ordinari-ness, they are shown to be a reality created from the subatomic particles of all transcendent buddhas…

refers to the “samadhi body isolation,” since that body devoid of the two selves serves as an object of pride as created from the subatomic particles



of all transcendent buddhas, manifested as the hundred clans and so on; and that is the uncommon object of [only] the Tantric practitioner.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´3´´b´´ – My interpretation]

As for explaining the three first [types] as body isolations, it does not occur anywhere in the translated Indian treatises in the Noble tradi-tion literature, neither does it seem to be the intention of the Integrated Practices.

Well, then, how should we interpret the intention of the Integrated Practices?

You posit a body isolation only after having identified the body which is to be isolated, [91a] and the verbal meaning of “body” is “heap,” “pile,” and “mass.” Thus, the first [Integrated Practices statement] shows it to be the mass of “the measure of the flesh element and so on,” as that is the way of “piling” up many things such as rice and barley and so on, and among those three; and this statement is also made in the Vajra Rosary.

Then, as for the way of piling up shown in piling up the twenty-five [elements], such as the five aggregates, as one calls it a “pile” when many grains of rice or barley are piled up, he shows it to be a pile, a mass including the body’s limbs and members. Among the twenty-five the mind and mental functions are also included, and the way they are piled up is different from the way grains of rice and so on, spatial objects each occupying its individual spatial location. So, [Āryadeva] mentions that “because of the meeting of the elements” in order to differentiate the [two ways of piling up]. Because the eyes and so on, the faculties, and the objects such as form meet one another, the mentality and the sixfold assemblage of the mind and wisdom and so on, the mental functions, occur. And as for their way of accumulating, assembling, and piling up, it is through collecting many parts of an uninterrupted continuum of former and later moments. So he says it is not a collecting of many spatial objects each occupying its location at the same time, since he specifies that “accumulation” refers to continua. While he says that the piling up of consciousnesses cannot be directly observed, as it does not stay still, and argues that consciousness is not embodied, by the reason that it does not reside in the eastern etc. spatial locations, and so is not a



collection of many objects occupying space, [91b] he does not refute substantial subject-object-dichotomy.

Now, as for what such a to-be-isolated body is to be isolated from, he indicates it by saying that it is present from the beginningless through the pride of ordinariness. As for what is meditated as the antidote of that, he indicates it by showing its reality as created from the subatomic parti-cles of all transcendent buddhas. And so it does not appear that the above explanations of the system of isolation, and also the many other [such] explanations, are in accord with the meaning.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´4´´ – Typology of body isolations]

The fourth has four parts: [a´´] Body isolation of the holy hundred clans; [b´´] Body isolation of the thatness five clans; [c´´] Body isolation of the secret three clans; [d´´] Body isolation of the great secret single clan.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´4´á´´ – Body isolation of the holy hundred clans]

The first has four parts: [i´´] Body isolation of the five aggregates; [ii´´] Body isolation of the four elements; [iii´´] Body isolation of the six faculties; [iv´´] Body isolation of the five objects.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´4´á´í´´ – Body isolation of the five aggregates]

From the Root Tantra:

In short the five aggregates Are well known as the five buddha clans.

Thus, the body [that is] isolable in the aggregate-body-isolation is stated to be the five, the matter aggregate etc., and its “isolation” to be the per-ception of those five as the five buddhas.

If we analyze the matter aggregate Vairochana, there are five forms: internal and external shape forms, such as long and short of both; aspectual forms, such as self, other, and both; color forms, such as blue etc. of the internal and external; luminant forms, such as sun and moon of the internal and external; and non-informative forms. These are [really] the five clans, respectively, Vairochana-Vairochana, Vairochana-Ratnasambhava, Vairochana-Amitabha, Vairochana-Amoghasiddhi, and Vairochana-Akṣhobhya.



If we analyze the sensation aggregate Ratnasambhava, there are five sensations: those of equality or neutrality: of phlegm-energy origin; of pleasure; of pain; and of bile and [92a] combination origin. These [also] are the five clans, Ratnasambhava-Vairochana and so forth.

If we analyze the concept aggregate Amitabha, there are five con-cepts; those of the immovable unchanging; the four footed; the footless; the many-footed; and the two footed. These are respectively the five, Amitabha-Vairochana and so forth.

If we analyze the creation aggregate Amoghasiddhi, there are five creations; those of the body, the three realms, of speech, of liberation, and of mentality, which are respectively Amoghasiddhi-Vairochana and so forth.

If we analyze the consciousness aggregate Akṣhobhya, there are five consciousnesses; those of eye, [ear, nose, tongue,] and body, which are respectively, Akṣhobhya-Vairochana and so forth.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´4´á´íi´´ – Body isolation of the four elements]

The Root Tantra states:

Earth is Lochanā, Water element is Māmakī, Fire is Pandāravāsinī, Wind-energy is renowned as Tārā.

The body isolable by the elemental body isolation is the [sum of the] four elements such as earth; and its isolation is explained as the realization of those four as the goddesses Lochanā and so forth.

If we analyze the earth [hardness] element Lochanā, concerning the internal, out of internal and external, there are five essences; the hair-bone-excretion-liver-essence, the body-hair-nail-pus-essence, the teeth-skin-flesh-essence, the ligament-muscle-rib-essence, the excrement-intestine-bile-essence. The “five essences” in this context have their source in the Integrated Practices [quotation from the Vajra Rosary]:

[Lochanā] definitely dwells in the five heart-essences, Emerging in the five processes, Endowed with the five [dream] wind-energies, Causing the function of five desires.



As for the meaning of the second line of this quote, it is according to the statement from the Darma Tsöndru translation of the Vajra Rosary, “Originating from the five senses”; due to the further statement, after the “causing the function…,” [namely:] “By the path of whatever sense-faculty, [92b] the practitioner attains the object.”

Further, the Vajra Rosary states:

Stuff of bliss, staying in the heart center, Buddha, light of brilliant sun, Through form of subject and object, That is the twelve light rays.

Here this states that twelve wind-energies come from the heart center, rely on the paths of the sense faculties, and become the wind-energies of the six subjectivities and six objectivities. Therefore, the interpretation of five “essences” is arrived at by analysis according to the fact that the support of the five sense wind-energies is the heart center.

As for the five external earths, they are Sumeru, and the continents of the south, west, north, and east. And the five external-internal classes [of buddha-clans] are Lochanā-Vairochana and so forth.

If we analyze water [liquidity] Māmakī, the five internal waters are phlegm, including mucus, sweat, blood, saliva, and urine; the outer waters are waterfalls, streams, canals, pools, and oceans; and the five clans are Māmakī-Vairochana and so forth.

If we analyze fire [heat-energy] Pandāravāsinī, the inner are the heats of head, navel, all limbs, belly, and heart; the outer are stone fires, fire-crystal fires, wood fires, forest fires, and constant fires; and their clans are Pandāravāsinī-Vairochana and so forth.

If we analyze wind [motility] Tārā, the inner are pervading, evacu-ating, ascending, metabolizing, and life-energy-holding; the outer are zenith, south, west, north, and east winds; and their clans are Tārā-Vairochana and so forth. If outer and inner are separately counted for four elements there are two sets of twenty. However, they are taken as one twenty, taking both outer and inner elements together in each ele-ment such as earth.



[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´4´á´íii´´ – Body isolation of the six faculties]

[93a] The Root Tantra states:

The vajra sense-media themselves Are the supreme mandala of bodhisattvas.

This states that the six senses are the isolable body of the inner media body isolation, and their body isolation is the realization that they are the bodhisattvas.

If the eye Kshitigarbha is analyzed, there are the eye’s perceiving threefold form, the white of the eyeball, the form of the eye glancing side-ways, eye movement, and the precisely grape-size eye sense; and their [clans are] Kshitigarbha-Vairochana and so forth.

If the ear Vajrapāṇi is analyzed, there are the ear-nature, its per-ceiving threefold sound, the ear hole, the ear root, and the cut-twisted-birchbark-like ear sense; their clans are Vajrapāṇi-Vairochana and so forth.

If the nose Ākāśhagarbha is analyzed, there are the nose’s nature, the center of its inner part, its perceiving threefold smell, its nostril holes, and the fine eye-medicine-spoon-like nose sense; these are the clans of Khagarbha-Vairochana and so forth.

If the tongue Lokeśhvara is analyzed, there are the tongue nature, its root, its tip, its perceiving threefold taste, the half-moon-shape tongue sense; these are the clans of Lokeśhvara-Vairochana and so forth.

If the body Sarvanivaraṇaviskambhin is analyzed, there are the body sense, the body’s bones, the flesh nature, the skin nature, and the perceiv-ing of texture; and these are the clans of Sarvanivaranaviskambhin-Vairochana and so forth.

If the mind sense faculty Mañjuśhrī, in which luminance, radiance, and imminence are collected, is analyzed, there are the mirror-like, equal-ity, individuating, all-accomplishing, and truth-realm wisdoms; and these are the clans of Mañjuśhrī-Vairochana and so forth.

In regard to these [five wisdoms], [93b] [Āryadeva] in the Inte-grated Practices describes them, after the purification of virtuous and nonvirtuous instincts, [respectively:] as the simultaneous knowledge of all things as reflections in a mirror; as the realization of all beings—of the four types, footless etc.—as being of the single aspect “merely mental”; as the abiding, doubt-free individual discernment of all inner and outer



things, knowing that if investigated “all have the nature of buddhas,” yet distinguishing these “members of the class of all things” as separate, like the petals of a lotus; as the full accomplishment of self and other’s duties of body, speech, and mind; and as the deliverance from affliction and evolution, purifying the obscurations of body, speech, and mind. These descriptions concern the fruitional stage of the wisdoms.

The [Stage of] Arrangement describes them—intending to accord with the explanation of the process of the dissolution of the four wisdoms —as the clear appearance of objects like clear reflections in a mirror, as the equality of class unity among the three sensations, as the individual remembrance of the individual names of beings such as father and mother, and as the mindfulness of mundane activities and necessities. These are the first four, and the fifth is the actuality of the mental sense, ready to be transformed upon abandonment of the taints.

Here, the Integrated Practices explains:

The samadhi of Mañjuśhrī has already been explained…

thinking that, after explaining also the five, Rūpavajrā and so forth, he explains the five wisdoms. So, to take the explanation of Mañjuśhrī as incidental, then to additionally explain the five wisdoms would be incor-rect: because [the hundred clans] is [reached by] making each deity into five clans, leaving out of the thirty-two deities the ten terrifics and Sam-antabhadra and Maitreya; [94a] and because the five wisdoms counted as five clans of the hundred clans are collected in the mental consciousness; and because, even in the context of the sense-media, though those sense-media are not openly there, many occasions of placing them in the clans of those contexts are [elsewhere] evident.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´4´á´ív´´ – Body isolation of the five objects]

The Root Tantra states:

The mantrī always realizes Form, sound, and so forth as deities.

Thus the isolable body of objective body isolation is the five objects, and their body isolation is their realization as the five vajras.

Now, if the visible form Rūpavajrā, associated with the seeing of forms through the moving energy operating through the eye, is analyzed;



there are mere general form seen based on the assembly of three condi-tions; passionate form; pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral form; work-accomplishing form; and alluring—seductive, playful, and charming—form. These are the clans of Rūpavajrā-vairochana and so forth.

If the sound Shabdavajrā, associated with the hearing of sounds through the permoving energy operating through the ear, is analyzed; there are sounds inside ear, head, and hair; sounds of songs and continuous sounds of palate and lips and speech; musical sounds of clay drum and so on; sounds of forest, streams, and palms clapping; and sounds of the mild and fierce HŪṀ letter. These are the clans of the five, Shabdavajrā-Vairochana and so forth.

If the smell experience Gandhavajrā, associated with the smelling of scents based on the commoving energy operating through the nose, is analyzed; there are general smell, auxiliary scents, specifics of threefold smell, [94b] smells of tastes, and inexhaustible smells. These are the five clans of Gandhavajrā-Vairochana and so forth.

If the taste experience Rasavajrā, associated with the tasting of tastes based on the surmoving energy operating through the tongue, is analyzed; there are sweet, astringent, salty, hot and sour, and bitter tastes; these are the clans of Rasavajra-Vairochana and so forth.

If the texture experience Sparshavajrā, associated with the experi-ence of textures based on the ultramoving energy operating through the body-sense, is analyzed; there are textures from staying in one seat, em-brace, sucking, kissing, and sexual union. These are the five clans of Sparshavajra-Vairochana and so forth.

As for the way in which those deities, thus taken as five for the twenty [above] arise as deities, if we use Vairochana as an example, the five [Rūpavajrā-Vairochana and so forth] are similar to Vairochana in number of faces and arms and implements, and yet become five by differ-ing in colors; by this the others can be understood.

If one wonders, “Well, having explained twenty out of thirty-two, why not elucidate the other twelve?”

The Root Tantra clearly explains the contemplation of each of the twenty from matter aggregate to texture as a deity, while the ten limbs, the joints, and the muscles and channels are not clearly explained to be meditated as the ten terrifics and the two bodhisattvas. Therefore, the Integrated Practices explanation was given in the same terms; because [Āryadeva] stated that, “If each of the four sets is completed, it explains



the meaning of this summary in the Root Tantra.” The Integrated Prac-tices quotes the Moon Esoteric Drop as the textual source of such a hundred clan [teaching], or its derivatives, the five clan practice, or the three clan practice. For example, in the Further Tantra:

Thatness [practice] is explained in five forms. Secretly it is explained in three forms: The archetype deity is the great secret; [95a] The hundred clans are a hundred.

This statement shows the meaning. The Explanatory Tantra Vajra Rosary also teaches the hundred

clans. Again in that Tantra, in the context of the body isolation explained in the hidden meaning manner in the preface, the ten limbs are explained as the ten terrifics; and in the actual explanation of eye Kśhitigarbha and so forth, Maitreya and Samantabhadra are also picked out, so that all thirty-two deities are completely accounted for: because it is stated [in that way] in the context of meditating the body as a deity in other sections [of the text]; because there is no difference on making each of the twenty deities suitable for analysis into five clans, while leaving the others un-suitable; and because they are equally used or not used in the body isola-tion [practice].

Therefore, even though one is concerned lest the hundred clans become too numerous if one applied the above explanation of the ten ter-rifics to the body isolation, it would not be correct to omit the complete explanation of the thirty-two deities, by not seeing how to arrange the passion-practice-concealing explanation, which had previously included them. Therefore all should be included in the section of the body isola-tion. You practice your body isolation using those twenty and, since you rely on the deities of the five clans dividing out into the hundred parts, it is stated that “your own body becomes realized as made with the subtle atoms of all transcendent buddhas.” Here “subtle atoms” is a name of having divided [the body] into a hundred separate parts and realizing them as a hundred deities.



[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´4´´b´´ – Body isolation of the thatness five clans]

If one [can] compress those classifications among the holy hundred clans, they can be compressed into five clans. Here, the isolable body five clans are comprised of the four elements such as earth and the realm of consciousness. The twenty from the matter [95b] Vairochana clan to the Sparshavajrā-Vairochana clan are included in the earth realm. Likewise, the twenty Ratnasambhava clans are water, the twenty Amitābha clans are fire, the twenty Amoghasiddhi clans are wind-energy, and the twenty Akṣhobhya clans are included in the consciousness realm.

Here the Integrated Practices explains the matter aggregate and so on as derivative elements. Now, the matter aggregate, except for the four elements and the form in the objective sense-medium, does consist of actual derivative elements, and the four nominal aggregates are also desig-nated as derivative elements as they just depend on the elemental body.

It is good that the five realms that compress the hundred clans should be taken as the clans of the five transcendent buddhas.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´4´ć´´ – Body isolation of the secret three clans]

The same [hundred clan isolation body] compressed into five clans is again compressed into the secret three clans; which is accomplished by the process of including the Ratnasambhava clan in the body vajra Vairo-chana clan, including the Amoghasiddhi clan in the speech vajra Amitābha clan, and including the Vajradhara clan in the mind vajra Akṣhobhya clan.

Here the Integrated Practices statement that the buddhas and bodhi-sattvas from the hundred clans to the five clans are collected within one’s body, speech, and mind does not contradict the above analysis into the hundred clans wherein are mentioned many things contained in the proc-esses of persons other than the practitioner as well as many things not contained in the personal processes of either self or other but only in the inanimate universe: because the way in which they are contained is not only by the way in which the matter aggregate contains the four elements. [96a] This will be explained [below]. Here the isolable body consists of the three, body, speech, and mind.



[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´4´´d´´ – Body isolation of the great secret single clan]

If one again condenses what is thus included in the three clans, it becomes the great secret single clan. And that, from the perspective of taking body, speech, and mind as the three vajras, becomes the sixth archetype deity, Vajradhara, the indivisibility of the three vajras; and this is the ultimate in body isolation.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´5´´ – How it serves as retraction and contempla-tion branches (of the six yoga branches)]

The fifth has two parts: [a´´] How retraction is contained within body isolation; [b´´] How contemplation is contained within body isolation.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´5´á´´ – How retraction is contained within body isolation]

In regard to “retraction,” the Further Tantra states:

“Retraction” occurs, When desires concerning All of the ten faculties’ natural functions And habituation to them are withdrawn.

Generally, “desires” can mean both “the desirer” and “the desired”; here is it the latter, which is desired and craved, namely the five sense objects, matter, and so on. Toward them, the sense faculties withdraw again and again from each [object], and by taking each one by one, [the process] is called “retraction.” Designating the objects also with the word “sense faculty,” they are explained as the ten sense faculties. “Natural function” is the natural action of the five sense organs, eye, and so on, as appre-hender, and form, and so on, as apprehended. “Habituation to them” is natural habitual action. “All” means habituated to lesser, greater, and medium differences. “Concerning” means the dative [or locative] case. The sense faculties function for all those. The Chag translation says “of the ten sense faculties,” [96b] and in the commentary there is no meaning of again and again.

The semantic equivalent for [the Tibetan] “so so” is [Sanskrit] “prati.” In the context of relativity, in the Lucid Exposition, it is explained as meaning “to meet” or “to repeat.” The meaning of pratimokṣha as a



semantic equivalent for so sor thar pa is explained in the [Abhidharma] koṣha as “primary liberation.” The meaning of pratīchha is explained as “specific acceptance.” Here, the meaning of “repeat” is to “repeat again and again, and memorize.” Further, in the context of the expression “I will repeatedly memorize firmly” other commentaries likewise explain it in the sense of “again and again.” Therefore, it is not necessary to mention each and every different sense of “so so.” Here, we are not postulating the explanation in the Extreme Illumination of the Lamp: “It functions in each—matter, and so on,” and “It is withdrawn from the respective [ob-jects]—form, and so on.” There are also many meanings for “withdraw,” but here they have the sense of “retract” and “collected retraction.” Gath-ered things are said to be the five objects of desires, so the sense faculties enjoy five objects.

Furthermore, completing common familiarization practice—the four vajras, the sense faculties of the yogī/nī who enters the supreme familiarization practice do indeed enjoy objects, but just this alone is not the path of “retraction” meditation, because that must be posited as for the mental consciousness itself alone. Therefore, in the Illumination of the Lamp Fifteenth Chapter it is stated, [quoting the Root Tantra]:

“Eat the vow of excrement and urine!” Here, ‘Excre-ment’ means the sense objects, form, and so on. ‘Urine’ means the sense organs, eye, and so on. The ‘vow’ of those is the coming together of the object and subject. ‘Eating’ that is the gradual experience of the stages of retraction [97a] and so on.

Thus [Chandrakīrti] says that the sense faculties enjoying the sense objects is what is to be eaten, and “retraction” is the process of eating. Therefore, as above explained, the expression “retraction” is used for some special methods of enjoyment of sense objects by a yogī/nī’s sense faculties, but the “retraction” member of the six-branched yoga is, when the sense faculties are enjoying the sense objects, the yoga of enjoyment that is sealed by the bliss-void great bliss of meditatively entranced body isolation. Thus, “retraction” is body isolation as an aftermath practice.

Well, someone might ask, “What is the meaning of the statement in the Extreme Illumination of the Lamp which teaches the second branch [contemplation] for the purpose of purifying retraction?”



Even though retraction and contemplation are similar in taking the senses’ enjoyment of desire objects as the path, the meaning [of the above statement] is that in retraction there is no enjoyment through realizing those [senses and objects] as deities as there is in the contemplation [branch]. Further, that being the case, there is no fault of them not coun-ting as body isolation, because great bliss itself is the definitive meaning deity, and meditating as sealed by that [great bliss] is the great art which isolates one from notions of ordinariness.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´5´´b´´ – How contemplation is contained within body isolation]

In the Further Tantra it is explained that:

In sum, the five desired [sense-objects] Are connected to the five buddhas; By this they are discerned and contemplated, That contemplation becoming five-fold: [A process of] examining, analyzing, being joyful, Having the great bliss of suchness, And actualizing one-pointed mind— Contemplation is comprised of these five. The Esoteric [Community] Tantra Explains all [these] [97b] in many different ways. Examining is the arisal of the three secrets, Analyzing is the enjoyment of those; Third is the touching of joy; Fourth is being concentrated through bliss, Ending the arisal of subjects and objects; And knowing your own mind is the fifth. The actuality of all buddhas is peace, Which permeates everything desired.67

As for the statement that “The five desired [sense objects], form, sound, and so on, are concentrated and made one with the sense faculties,”

67 This part of this verse resembles verse 41 of Nāgārjuna’s Letter to a Friend (thanks to Dr. Lozang Jampal for this information).



it means that both sense faculty and object are included as both faculty and object.

In the statement in the Illumination of the Lamp: “The five buddhas are the eye, and so on, in union with them, true union, by uniting with them as the five buddhas, thereby even form and so on are buddhas”; the phrase “The five buddhas are the eye etc. in union with them” though it is intelligible, the translation is a bit awkward.

As for the true uniting of the five [sense organs], eye, and so on, with the five buddhas, from Vairochana to Akṣhobhya, the five [sense objects], form, sound, and so on are also connected to the five clans. Thus, to say that both the faculties and objects are buddhas is to designate them as totally purified deities; that is contemplation. That is [broken down] into five—examination and so on. In this context of explaining the general definition, when it is explained that the contemplation [branch] is that which meditates objects and faculties as deities, it is just for illustration. According to the context of the body isolation, one should understand that one also meditates the aggregates as deities. Therefore, do not think that it is only the body of the deity that one meditates on. One must also meditate the reality of the deity, as one can understand from the context of the extensive explanation. [98a]

In the Elixir Secret, there are the five desired [objects] and the five aggregates, and each has [further] internal classifications, but that does not mean that they are classified as five for the sake of abbreviation. The sense faculty, the object, and the faculties’ cognition are the three secrets; and the idea that “the three sets of five have the nature of the five buddha-clans” is [the contemplation component called] “examination.” The analysis [component] is that that these three sets of five are analyzed as of the nature of the five clans. Patsab and Chag translate “the three secrets are examination,” which is appropriate, since there is no point in bringing this up further in the commentary. Then, one enjoys that examination, dwelling further on that object by analyzing it; and that is [the contemplation component of] analysis. Since the Elixir Secret explains that analysis is meditating through distinguishing, the components of examination and analysis are differentiated by fineness of discrimination, while both of them are body isolations cultivated in aftermath states.

Thus, first on the occasion of retraction, you learn to view things such as objects and senses as the transformations of bliss-void. As that



stabilizes, you learn contemplation wherein those bliss-void transforma-tions arise as deities.

Here, the Illumination of the Lamp says:

Thus having analyzed, when one confronts the entry into thatness, that having the nature of mental bliss is the contact with joy. Then, when one enters manifestly into thatness, that bliss which one attains with the nature of body fluency and so on, is comprised as bliss.

Joy is said to be mental bliss, and [pure] bliss is body fluency. “And so on” indicates the bliss of mental fluency. The former is attained by confronting entry into thatness, [98b] and the latter is attained having entered into thatness. Patsab’s translation says “while thus analyzing,” and Chag’s translation says “from thus having analyzed.” The two old translations say “thus having analyzed.” The meaning there is that both examination and analysis are referred to by saying “thus having ana-lyzed.” “By entering thatness, joy and bliss will be attained” indicates the future attainment of the latter [components of contemplation]. “Entering into” thatness and “confronting” thatness are similar in import, but as for the way in which joy and bliss are attained by that process; first you attain great bliss by the power of meditating the subtle [drop] in the lower door [of the central channel], and then you meditate with that [bliss] being focused on the ascertainment of the import of thatness. Thereby you will attain contact with the distinctive mental bliss of realiz-ing voidness and you will attain the physical and mental fluency that arise from realizing voidness.

Actual physical fluency is a special kind of tangible experience which makes the body become extremely adept, but here it is not that [type]. This is the bliss of fluency which becomes the property that causes both body and mind to become extremely adept. It is a mental fun-ction which is a correlate of the previous mental bliss.

By practicing as previously explained or by becoming accustomed to that, thereby you terminate the six [subjective] consciousnesses, visual and so on, and the six objects, form and so on, and [you realize] voidness with respect to the mind’s perception of the subject-object dichotomy. Therefore, [such] one pointedness of mind, defined as primal wisdom, is called one’s “nature of mind.” [99a] Here, the Chag translation [of the Illumination of the Lamp] says:



The nature of all buddhas is peace; all of them totally abide in space…

and

Such a yogī/nī’s mind is peace, the nature of all buddhas.

[The mind of contemplation] is said to be “peace” because it has eliminated the notions of objects and so on, and is merely vision. Previous statements, such as “This ultimately occurs in unity with universal voidness” are good, but the Patsab translation’s “that cul-minates only in universal voidness” is better. As for that previous one-pointedness of mind, it means the entry into voidness, the nature of all buddhas, and the word “merely” means peace in that it cuts off all ideations at that time. “Space” means void, and “uni-versal void” is the fourth void. When you wholly abide there, you enter by going through the three previous voids. These two lines explain one-pointedness of mind. Therefore, what Lan said:

If one interprets one-pointedness of mind as mind isola-tion, then, in short, by the expression “the actuality of all buddhas” one means the magic body, and by the rest of that one refers to clear light…

is incorrect. In the context of the body isolation of the elements, there is the cryptic explanation of the prologue of [of the Esoteric Community Tantra] in the Vajra Rosary:

Wind, fire, water, and earth, Are the four, Lochanā and so on, Known as three types of natural primal wisdom, They grant the buddha enlightenment.

It states that the four elements—realized as Locana, and so on—should be understood as having the nature of the three wisdoms of the three voids, [luminance, radiance, and imminence]; [99b] and therefore the path-time three voids’ primal wisdom is present during body isolation.

The previous mention of the fourth void is metaphoric clear light, and its arisal is never precluded from body isolation up to the magic body. However, the mention of the three voids being present before the magic body intends that metaphoric clear light be included in the great void of



imminence. Therefore, in these contexts, the entry of imminence into clear light should be understood as the imminence in which you become unconscious, after which you enter into the cloudless-sky-like absorption in universal voidness.

Well here you might think that the above general definition of con-templation seems to account for examination and analysis, but it does not seem to describe joy, bliss, and one-pointedness of mind; so would not those three become severed from that sort of contemplation?

This is not a problem, since that explanation of contemplation as the meditation of the senses and objects and so on as deities includes both the meditation of the deities with forms of faces and hands and also the meditation focusing on the thatness of the deities. In the Extreme Illumi-nation of the Lamp it is stated that when one engages objects, the idea that the senses and so on, the three, have the nature of the five clans, is “examination,” the idea that those are the nature of the five primal wis-doms is ideational “analysis,” the arisal of a distinctive joy from thinking “I am a realization of thatness” is “joy,” and “bliss” is explained as physi-cal fluency coming from attaining that mental bliss. And examination and analysis are explained to be luminance, joy to be radiance, and bliss to be imminence. And this [text] does seem to claim the presence [here] of the three primal wisdoms of mind isolation.

In this regard, the meaning of the three primal wisdoms [100a] as stated in the Wisdom Vajra Compendium is the objective explained in the Integrated Practices in the context of mind isolation, where there is the problem of not being thoroughly explicit about the way in which what sort of habit pattern holds that object. And Nāropa’s explanation of these two branches [retraction and contemplation] appears just to consist of his quoting of the Illumination of the Lamp.

Although one should explain in detail this six-branched yoga of the Noble system, since my predecessors did not seem to give the details, here I explained in detail, and will do so [even more] below.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´6´´ – How to put into practice the body isolation]

The sixth has three parts: [a´´] How to concentrate the wind-energies by meditating the subtle; [b´´] How melting bliss arises from that; and [c´´] How to cultivate samadhic and aftermath [body isolations] when [bliss] arises.



[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´6´á´´ – How to concentrate the wind-energies by meditating the subtle]

Having discovered the stable yoga which visualizes the subtle man-dala, you then become able to develop a distinctive melting bliss. Once that has emerged, then you already know how to produce joy, and you should cultivate it as will be explained. However, if you discover that, but [melting bliss] does not emerge, in the interim you should meditate abiding in the yoga of the lord and lady. If that also is not there, if you practice the entry into the present, you should meditate after concluding a preliminary meditation of the yoga of the retinue of [the deities of] the mandala. As it is explained in the Concise Five Stages:

One should know the four kinds of essential points, Those of body, time, object, and wind-energy.

The essential point of the body will be explained in the speech isolation. The essential point of time in general is continuity, but in specific it is when awareness is clear and you meditate in the afternoon in the time of fire. The essential point of wind-energy is sufficiently [explained in] our own system. As for the essential point of object, the place where one aims one’s perception, the sixth chapter of the Illumination of the Lamp says that [100b] “For the male, in the hole of the vajra there is a mere barley grain size hand symbol; and for the female there is the mere measure of a chickpea68 in her vagina.” The third chapter of the Illumination of the Lamp explains that one should meditate the superficial spirit of enlight-enment, the size of a grain of mustard, in the mouth of one’s vajra, as having the nature of the five clans. And in the Personal Instruction [of Mañjuśhrī] it says: “As previously quoted, one should meditate [it] in the center of the jewel”; so there is no disagreement with the statement “Meditate [it] in the hole of the vajra.” “Meditate in the mouth of the vajra” intends the lower opening of the dhūti; those two are similar. The Personal Instruction explains that with the clear light of the seed at the heart center one invites the mandala, melts those absorbed into the heart center, whence they descend as a drop and abide in the jewel.

68 Sanskrit caṇaka means chickpea.



The Illumination of the Lamp explains that you should meditate in harmony with the process of birth in existence, as when the basic time male and female sexually unite and the fire of passion melts the drop and it falls into the lotus; which makes plain the meditation of the drop thus produced descending to the lower door. The Illumination of the Lamp in-tends that the color of the drop should be the color of your deity. If you hold the mind in the extremely subtle drop, it is easy to cut off concep-tual thoughts, because it is easy to terminate the evolutionary wind-energy which drives those [conceptions]. However, if it seems that you can not hold it like that no matter what you do, then let it be a little bigger, and when you can hold it, then make it subtler. This could be a problem of jumping a stage of meditation, not having stabilized [well enough] on the creation stage. If one makes it stable, then there is no problem of of not being able to hold the mind on such an object.

The distinctive way of holding the mind, the way of cultivating without depression and elation, not desiring the termination of the wind-energy even though the object is well-held, [101a] how to proceed when you are not ready to generate such an intense bliss and so on, and the way to dispel the arisal of some odds and ends of previous discomfort in desiring to terminate the energy, etc.—all these private instructions are explained in detail elsewhere. Thus, you meditate by aiming your vision towards the place of the great life-energy of the body, either the lower door of the dhūti or the center of the channel wheel of the jewel, and you hold your mind there by means of the vital point of getting the energy and mind to function in unity. At that moment, you terminate the wind-energies’ movement in the rasanā and lalanā channels and move them into the dhūti. After that, it begins to dissolve there, and first the five signs will arise. In the Personal Instruction it is stated:

Thereupon [in] the great secret drop Very subtle, like a lump— Hold your own mind—gently, gently— And reach the place of thinglessness. There again, by cultivating this object, The deceptive earth disappears, You perceive hallucinations And you must know the first of the signs. Likewise, when water disappears,


You perceive the smoke-like [sign]; You must know it as the second [sign]. When fire disappears in turn, You have the third [sign] like fireflies. When wind-energy likewise disappears, You perceive a butter-lamp-like flame, And you must know it as the fourth sign. Likewise deceptive consciousness is gone, The nonduality of depth and clarity You see clear as a cloudless sky— That sign you recognize as the fifth. With [the arisal of] those five signs You will attain non-located nirvana. The yogī/nī thus should strive in this— This being the branch of endurance.

As for the Further Tantra statement that these five signs emerge in the context of the yoga branch of endurance,69 [101b] the four signs emerge before entering into clear light, and the fifth at the time of clear light. This intends that the entry into clear light is an entry by the power of meditat-ing the three life-energy-control practices. The Personal Instruction also says that the five signs emerge in the contexts of meditating the subtle [object] in the lower door and the indestructible [drop] in the heart; so you should understand that these signs emerge then by performing those two [types of] vajra recitation.

As for the Illumination of the Lamp explaining the entry into clear light through the door of the five signs, though it should be explained that the entry into clear light comes [only] after having attained mind iso-lation and the magic body by completing the three life-energy controls, nevertheless it is not that [Chandrakīrti] does not accept the arisal of those signs on the lesser occasions of entering into the metaphoric clear light. So there is no contradiction in explaining the branch of endurance as an entry into the clear light which abides in insubstantiality by the

69 In the quote just given, “endurance” is spelled in Tibetan as gzung ba, perhaps old-fashioned way of spelling it, whereas Tsong Khapa correctly writes ’dzin pa in his gloss.


progression of the signs on the occasion of meditation on the subtle [drop] in the lower door.

Tathāgatavajra explains that by meditating the HŪṀ letter at the heart center, you meditate the energy entering its drop, and holding that, you will attain clear light—it is explained just so. It is explained that you will achieve the clear light of endurance, either with the yoga of the subtle vowels and consonants abiding in the navel channel, or meditating the drop in the tip of the vajra, or meditating with the furor yoga, and so on, whichever [of these] are suitable. It is explained in agreement even in the Indian treatise of the six-branched yoga of the Jñānapāda system. So this is excellent. Therefore, when one holds the mind in the point of the great life-energy of the channels of the body, it is not like other foci of the mind. The practice of meditating the subtle in the lower door [102a] exists up to there, but as explained above, if one doesn’t know the advantages of meditating on that, then it seems one will not find certitude about the personal instructions. This is well explained depending on the Further Tantra and the statements of His Holiness Mañjuśhrī. Thus, this path should be understood as the instruction that is an unerring, distinctive method of life-energy control. Therefore, it is said that the yogī/nī should make effort in this. Make a fierce effort in this meditation.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´6´´b´´ – How melting bliss arises from that]

Second, there is a normal experience of joy that comes from the melted enlightenment spirit descending to the secret place of those both meditating and not meditating the path in general, and it can happen that a melting will emerge from the blazing of furor-fire both in the navel and the secret place. So, it is not necessary that the life-wind-energy dissolve into the dhūti for the furor-fire to burn and melt the spirit of enlighten-ment. Therefore, certain types of persons meditate as above and so expe-rience the bliss of the melting of the spirit of enlightenment, though their wind-energies do not dissolve into the dhūti.

This kind of similar [experience] can happen to [people in general], as [those that are achieved by yogī/nīs] meditating other personal instruc-tions for penetrating the vital points in the body. When such a drop reaches the vajra jewel, it seems to be very difficult to retain. So one must first, by the outer and inner descending methods, forcefully reverse the descent of the enlightenment spirit from those places [higher in the


system] before it reaches the jewel. As soon as it reaches the vajra, if it cannot be diffused within the body, the many [redirecting] strains [needed] to instantly reverse it and the forceful methods of reversing it seem to produce sickness. And even if [some] have already implemented many procedures of such diffusion, [102b] it does not seem that they know the systems of distinguishing the enlightenment spirit melting with the wind-energies dissolving into the dhūti from its melting without [the wind-energies dissolving there], and thus how to determine the difficulty or ease of retaining the enlightenment spirit, the necessity of its forceful reversal or lack [of such necessity], and whether or not one will become sick by not spreading the reversed [spirit] within the body.

About that, as for the necessity of the melting of the enlightenment spirit by burning the furor-fire by the power of meditating the path, it is for the sake for generating the orgasmic intuitive wisdom. In generating that [furor fire], the enlightenment spirit melts and falls; if it does not generally reach below the navel and particularly reach into the jewel and stay there somewhat without emitting, you can never develop the fully defined orgasmic [wisdom]. And to equate this orgasmic [wisdom] with the great bliss of the perfection stage, it must be one that abides by the power of dissolving the wind-energies. If the enlightenment spirit is melted by the power of dissolving the wind-energies into the dhūti, then it will be held in the tip of the jewel and will not emit outward until the fully defined orgasmic [bliss] has been generated. This is because, when the enlightenment spirit descends from the crown [wheel] by stage after stage, as the wind-energies become weaker and weaker and it reaches the jewel, the wind-energy’s function which would push that enlightenment spirit outside becomes calmed. At that point, it will not emit until one arises from the orgasmic samadhi.

When you do arise, as the energy can become greatly agitated, you must know the art of not emitting [the enlightenment spirit]. In that case, even if you do not practice the method of reversing [the spirit] at the first occasion when you are not accustomed [to the experience] and the method of reversing it later [when you are accustomed], again, when it goes back upwards [in the body] at both times of naturally going in reverse again, there is definitely no arisal of sickness by its not having spread out within the body. If you melt the enlightenment spirit by meditation on the subtle and so on, not by the power of dissolving the wind-energies, [103a] you cannot hold it more than a bit in the jewel, so you must


reverse it right away, and you must understand the height of the place to reverse it to. If the melting is weak, it is easy to reverse it. If it is intense, it must be spread in the body. If you meditate on this for a long time, even though you don’t reverse it right away, you will get the ability after a while.

As for the fact that, in the Tantras and the great Indian treatises, these subjects do not occur as they do in other practical instructions, it is because of the essential point that the principle [jewel-like] disciple of this teaching will quickly generate the wind-energy-dissolving perfection stage, [and so] such practical instructions are not necessary.

As for the process of generating the four joys in descending order, as the enlightenment spirit melts and reaches from place to place, the Vajra Rosary Tantra says:

Then one should teach the emerging order: In the crown of the great bliss wheel, It is said to be “joy”; In the wheel of beatitude it is “supreme joy”; In the Dharma wheel it is “ecstatic joy”; And in the emanation wheel “orgasmic joy”— All these are caused to be experienced.

Here, “joy” is assigned [to the movement] from the crown to the throat.70 The other three should also be understood in that way.

As for the way of generating [the four joys] welling up from below, according to the same text [the Vajra Rosary]:

In the emanation wheel there is joy, Supreme joy dwells in the Dharma wheel, Ecstatic joy dwells in the beatific wheel, and Orgasmic [joy in the] great bliss [wheel], These are declared these are stages are the reverse order.

70 Here the movement down from each wheel to the next is where the joy etc. are experi-enced, not merely in the wheel itself. Tsong Khapa is here improving a bit on the original text. The genital wheel is not mentioned in this passage and the following, though the emerging order joys end in it and the reversing order joys begin in it.


The places of this should be understood by the reasonings previously explained.

This also agrees with the Great Seal Drop. [103b] In that text also, it says that, by making each of them, upper and lower, have four parts, there are sixteen parts of the moon, and from the solar point of view in each there are three and [thus] there are twelve parts. To quote that same text:

These parts of the “rabbit-marked” moon Are the sixteen drops of joy To be known as actually the āli [vowels]. From the stages in the four wheels Just as has been explained, We say there are twelve solar parts.

Here when the spirit of enlightenment streams up and down, it streams together with the blood. Here you experience a bliss in each of the sections which you made of the four parts of each of the four places. In each of the four places from the point of view of particles streaming in each of the four sections made into three parts, respectively, there are small, medium and great bliss discerned in one’s experience, and one who has that should understand it, said to be [quite] subtle. In the Sheaf of Instructions it is explained that the four upward-surging orgasmic blisses are differentiated into small, medium, great, and intensely great. The upward-surging four blisses are said to be more intense than the downward-falling four blisses. When surging from below, until the reversal has become firm at the crown, bliss is not stable. When it is firm in the crown, then it is stable, it is said. The same text [Sheaf of Instruc-tions] says:

Upon the life-energy [-wind] is mentality. Going against that, it will descend. Abiding in the center of the navel of the lotus, It stabilizes outside of that. At that time the savior will not go. Just as in a vessel with no holes Water will remain inexhaustibly. At that time bliss will be firm. When firm, there is orgasmic joy.


Thus, buddha inexhaustible— The yogī/nī will definitely [104a] achieve.

The Sheaf of Instructions explains that here, “mentality” means “semen.” “Going against” means “the reverse order.” “Firm” means “reaching the crown.”

Here, Lakṣhmī explains that when the enlightenment spirit drips from the crown, it is luminance. When it descends into the joints of all the limbs, it is radiance. When the one drop emits from the tip of the vajra, it is imminence, and when it is firm in that very tip, then that is the arisal of clear light. Again, the first two [stages] are similar, but its going into the vajra tip or center being imminence, and abiding within the jewel being the arisal of clear light, are also explained as the four joys. There are many [explanations] like this, [all of] which are similar.

Muniśhrī explains that when it reaches the root of the vajra, it is luminance; when it reaches the center of the jewel, it is imminence, and when it reaches the tip of the jewel, it is clear light. This implies that he must claim that when it reaches from the root of the vajra to the throat of the jewel, it is the arisal of radiance.

The Great Seal Drop explains that the four joys are the same as lu-minance, radiance, imminence, and clear light. The Root and Explana-tory Tantras of the Esoteric Community and treatises of the five Noble literatures do not contain explanations of the four joys as the four voids, and the five Noble father and sons do not say that when [the enlighten-ment spirit] melts and reaches this place, the four joys or the four voids arise, they just explain the arisal of luminance by dissolving the wind-energies and the arisal of radiance by the dissolving of mind, and so forth. As for most of the other followers of the five Noble literatures, except for mentioning the four voids generated from the process of the descent of enlightenment spirit from the crown to the secret place vajra, they do not explain any other way in which the primal wisdom of the four voids is included in the path. [104b] Not to accept [the reticence of these sages] is a misunderstanding of the great vital point of this system, as will be ex-plained below.

Here, someone says, “Which should be accepted among these ways of generating the four joys by the process of the streaming of the enlight-enment spirit?”


The distinctive types of the four voids that will be taught emerge from penetrating the vital point in the heart center. Although these are not produced here, a simulation of the four voids is produced. If one prac-tices like Muniśhrī it is clear that there is a very important correspon-dence here. Here, great bliss is the life of the path, and making it firm, as it depends on the upward-surging bliss, is the extremely important way to produce it. Again, the Sheaf of Instructions says:

With the arisal of that enlightenment-spirit, beginning from the jewel until it reaches the navel, it increases without emitting, and proceeds upwards.

Taking this literally, [we would think that] when it does not emit from the jewel, it is as if it naturally reversed itself; but it is not so. Even though it does not emit, it can happen that it goes indivisibly where it will, without entering the very same path as it came down. And it can happen that even if it reverses direction, there is no certainty it will reach straight to the crown and it may spread out into the lower part of the body. Therefore, if it is necessary that it go to the crown by winding itself upwards, the yogī/nī must do that purposefully. As the Vajra Rosary Tantra says:

By the preceding of the thatness Of the wind-energies, it is driven upward. The yogī/nī causes that achievement, And therefrom in the emanation wheel One realizes what is called “joy.”

It [further] says that the yogī/nī makes it go upon the [heart’s] Dharma wheel [105a] and then up to the beatific wheel.

Thus, by meditation on the subtle, as for all those processes—dis-solving the wind-energies, the arising of the signs, the melting the spirit of enlightenment by burning the furor and it coming downward, its rever-sal upward, and the production from both of those [processes] of the downward streaming and the upward firming joys in their sixteen [luner] portions and, from the solar perspective, twelve portions—they are all similar in involving the blazing and the dripping of the furor in the navel and the secret center, meditation by setting letters and drops there, and meditating there on vase breathing, and so on. All of those are very important, and especially they are methods which do not mistake the


vital points of the path of the Yoginī Tantras; so you should understand them well.

This meditating of the subtle drop in the lower door is very powerful for burning the fury fire, as it easily reverses the evacuative energy up-ward, and can demonstrate well the downward streaming orgasmic joy. In this it is necessary that the spirit of enlightenment abide for a long time in the jewel. Although there are many [other] necessities such as its long abiding there, I do not write about them for fear of getting too lengthy.

[VI.B.3.b.ii.C´3´díÁ´´6´ć´´ – How to cultivate samadhic and aftermath (body isolations) when (bliss) arises]

When you are able to generate the orgasmic joys of the upward and downward order, it is necessary to unite them with the completely decisive view of selflessness, the purity of suchness. Therefore, you must generate this with the two minds functioning as one, and you must medi-tate in the equipoised trance on the union of voidness and great bliss as object and subject. When you arise from that [trance], moved by the force of wind-energies, the way you meditate is described in the Vajra Rosary Tantra:

As for the sense engaging the object [105b] Binding whatever abides there, You should intensely engage the superficial relative, The magic [body] and so on, nondual with voidness. Such as the wisdom-intuition initiation, It is the bliss of [that] experience. By remembering great bliss, Your senses reverse the objective body.

This means that “voidness” is clear light transparence; “nondual” is communion; the “superficial” is the magic body, and so on. Included in the “and so on” are also the ways of engaging sense objects in the con-text of less advanced [practices]. You should understand according to what is explained here that, in all the occasions of developing the four voids, from speech isolation on, whatever arises is sealed with bliss-void. Thus, when you enjoy an object, you seal it by remembering [both] the bliss taken as the actuality of the third initiation and the previously explained great bliss according to the explanation of what is included in


the “and so on.” You restrain any attitude that is in disharmony with that, and abide there with all objects appearing as bliss. After that, conditioned by the blazing of bliss the wind-energies that function through the doors of the senses are reversed within and the sense consciousnesses also are retracted, the wind-energies dissolve, and, as before, bliss arises.

In that regard, just as in first stage one must learn that everything outer and inner that arises, arises as divine, so in the second stage all that arises must [be experienced to] arise as a transformation of great bliss. But again, that is only after having discovered the orgasmic great bliss of the perfection stage, so here the statement that you should see everything that arises as the play of great bliss from the perspective of body isola-tion [106a] is made in order that all visions should arise as bliss.

In that regard, through determining the pure nature of all things, you first must understand all substantial things as transformations of voidness, and then through the process of uniting bliss and void, you must meditate them as transformations of great bliss. To explain those, in the Integrated Practices it says:

“I am pure by nature!” which means “My nature has been firmly created.” And as for having visualized your-self as the great Vajradhara, with the nature of the three vajras, it is explained as the “yoga of blessing.”

On this occasion of the single clan body isolation, yourself the yogī/nī develops a firm visualization that knows your natural purity, and are said to have meditated yourself as Vajradhara. And not only yourself, but also all the whole body which is to be isolated, and not only on the occasion of the one clan [body isolation], but likewise on the occasions of the hun-dred clan body isolation, and so on.

Therefore, when all things to be isolated [from routine ordinariness] are primally determined to have the nature of the pure reality devoid of intrinsic identifiability, that very realityless voidness is known to arise as all those substantial things—and that is the meaning of things being the transformations of voidness. Although there are many different kinds of things, since they are no different in being void of truth[-status], the negandum of which they are devoid, they are all of a single aesthetic taste, without any multiplicity of different voidnesses. Therefore, when such voidness is taken as the object by orgasmic bliss, then, even though subject and object may not [yet] merge like water poured in water, one


can imaginatively practice that way. [106b] At that time, by the vital point of imagining bliss-void as a single aesthetic experience, it is easy, by the power of visualization, to focus [on things] as the transformations of bliss just like they are the transformations of voidness. And this is the real reason for sealing everything that arises [with great bliss] by remem-bering the bliss-void trance concentration.

Thus, in terms of seeing all substantial things as the transforma-tions of the uniform aesthetic experience of bliss-void, even the appear-ance of the life cycle, the effect, and of evolution and addiction, its cause, become the play of great primal wisdom, and so the routine life cycle and its cause have no place of origin. In the passage [from the Vajraśhrīvara King of Nondual Tantras] quoted in the Integrated Practices in the context of the hundred clan body isolation:

The aggregates, elements and likewise the media, Having been divided into five classes and again five, Are blessed individually by the transcendent lords— Whence could the life cycle evolutions emerge? Likewise, each one of the five outer objects, Individually by the five bliss-lords, Are always specially blessed, Always truly standing as the three and five wisdoms.

Chag’s translation in this way is excellent. Seeing the implication of this, Saraha said [in an Enlightenment

Song]:

Don’t take it as two, take it as one; Don’t distinguish the various specific clans. Transform all of the three realms—all of this— Into the color of the single great passion!

There there is no beginning, middle, or end. It is not existence, and it is not nirvana. In this supreme great bliss The self [107a] and the other do not exist.

In the front and back, in the ten directions, Whatever you see is that itself.


That bliss itself your savior, right now ends all error. Now, you need not go to ask for anyone else.

Here, “great passion” is primal orgasmic wisdom. Thus, according to the explanation of the hundred clans and so on,

at first this is determined by learning and reflection. Then at the time of practice, you preliminarily learn the [yoga branch of] retraction wherein you see everything that appears as the play of bliss-void. Having learned that, then you learn the ultimate body isolation wherein all that arises as the single great secret Vajradhara, and you meditate yourself as bliss-void in the form of arising as Vajradhara. And again you there have union with your consort. The treatises of the Noble father and sons are not explicit as to whether Vajradhara is blue or white.

If you cannot create the great bliss as just explained but can create the melting bliss, then meditate on that. If even that is lacking, you should create it through understanding well the process of joining bliss and void and the process of cultivating the entranced and aftermath [samadhis]. In order to take great bliss as the path, there is no other art than, by the power of firm familiarization with this method of cultivating great bliss in trance and aftermath [samadhis], associating everything that arises with the blazing of bliss. And so there are many explanations of it in many Tantras and treatises. In this [Noble] system, it is clearly explained in the context of body isolation, so having thoroughly understood it, turn your mind toward it again and again. And this is how you should inherit the extraordinary ability of the class of [the practitioners of] this path. [107b]

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Sutra and Tantra: The Profound and Miraculous